SUNRISE SHOWS THE WAY WITH L Series FROM NEC ELECTRONICS

Cost effective solution delivers high performance, low current and LCD drive

Dedicated NEC Electronics distributor, Sunrise Electronics is now shipping the new L Series (Lx2) range of 8-bit microcontrollers from NEC Electronics that combine low current consumption, high performance, and an integrated LCD controller to deliver cost effective solutions for applications using segment displays.

Segment LCD displays are an increasingly popular way for manufacturers to add value to their products. From fire & security panels to thermostats, as well as metering and small kitchen appliances, LCD displays can now be found everywhere. However, the addition of these new features has the effect of increasing both complexity and cost in an environment that is sensitive to increases in price. More software and more complex user interaction add to the amount of memory, the amount of CPU processing power, and the amount of I/O required.

Meeting these demands, NEC Electronics’ L Series microcontrollers have been developed using state of the art 0.15 µm technology and SST Flash technology. This enables them to deliver industry leading low levels of power consumption when running at 20 MHz and allows a wide range of operating voltages. L Series microcontrollers also share the excellent performance of NEC Electronics’ successful K Series devices at low voltage, making them ideal for battery powered and handheld applications. Several power saving modes are also available that further reduce current consumption.

L Series microcontrollers deliver large memory sizes and an abundance of I/O and peripherals to ensure that manufacturers can make full use of an LCD display to deliver maximum differentiation. These cost efficient microcontrollers feature up to 128Kb Flash & 7Kb RAM to remove the need for manufacturers to sacrifice software features to save memory space. L Series microcontrollers offer 20MHz performance from the 8-bit CPU allowing developers more scope to add new features in software. I/O and peripherals available include A/D conversion, charge pump, and carrier generator. There are 36 L Series devices from which to choose, making it very easy to find a close fit to the requirements of many different applications.

NEC Electronics’ line concept provides manufacturers with a powerful platform based design methodology enabling easy migration between microcontroller devices within the same family, or even between microcontroller families, as the same software can be used for both L Series LCD devices and K Series general purpose devices. Developers can save cost by re-using this software for many different products.

Development tools include a low-cost starter kit. L Series See-It! is a fully functional evaluation platform to demonstrate the capabilities of NEC Electronics’ L Series microcontrollers. The starter kit contains everything required to begin creating applications using LCD segment displays. The kit comes with the µPD78F0397, 100-pin, 160 Segment LCD 128 Kbytes Flash device and a free time unlimited ‘Kickstart’ copy of IAR’s Embedded Workbench software. A free flash programmer is also included on the CDROM in order for users to benefit from faster programming over a USB link with the host PC. The starter kit is shipped with ready to run software featuring many example applications such as current consumption test, temperature sensing, light measurement, and clock utility with easy to use joystick menu selector. In addition the See it! starter kit allows the user to experiment with all features of the latest 78K0 microcontrollers including OCD, POC, LVI, 2 on-chip oscillators, self programming and E²PROM emulation.

About NEC Electronics NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 26 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH. In addition to marketing, selling and supporting NEC Electronics products to customers in their respective regions, NEC Electronics America and NEC Electronics Europe also operate local manufacturing facilities in Roseville, California, and Ballivor, Ireland, respectively. Additionally, NEC Electronics America for North America and NEC Electronics Europe for Europe are the sales and marketing channels of NEC AM-LCD modules. For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit  www.necel.com.

About Sunrise

Sunrise Electronics is the only dedicated franchised distributor in the UK electronics market and provides a high level of technical design support to customers for the whole range of NEC semiconductor products including microprocessors, microcontrollers and ASICs as well as memory and colour LCD panels. The field sales team is technically qualified to ensure total support from design concept through to purchasing.

Sunrise is a direct ship distributor. The majority of shipments are delivered directly to customers from NEC’s own ISO9000 warehouse. This ensures reduced handling, correct packaging; especially for fine pitch surface mount devices requiring vacuum sealing, factory fresh product and timely deliveries.